The US - Poultry dispute arbitrated by the WTO, opposing China to the US, was raised by the US decision to stop equivalence regime procedures for Chinese poultry. The Panel found that this decision was not compatible with the SPS Agreement's exigencies requiring a risk assessment centered on the...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the challenges developing countries face in attempting to balance sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) health and safety measures against concerns about protectionism, illustrated by the impact of trade barriers on the fisheries and...

The WTO dispute settlement body?s decisions provide an opportunity to bring to light the difficulties reconciling the market principles and non trade values in international trade law. The first two decisions, which involve the SPS Agreement, and also the GATT Agreement, deal respectively with...

Agricultural and wildlife trade is subject to sudden, disruptive import restrictions arising fromconcerns over sanitary and phytosanitary safety and the conservation of natural resources.These restrictions can create significant international price differences that encourage thesmuggling of...

Agricultural and wildlife trade is subject to sudden, disruptive import restrictions arising from concerns over sanitary and phytosanitary safety and the conservation of natural resources. These restrictions can create significant international price differences that encourage the smuggling of...

The actual, SPS agreement allows a limited taking into account of the food safety requirements. The room for man?uvre of the States is relatively restricted, in particular because of the central place conferred on the scientific justification when evaluating the validity of sanitary measures....

The September 11th event focused the world’s attention on the threat of bioterrorism on the food chain. As a consequence, the USA implemented the Bioterrorism Act (BTA) containing new import requirements that can be classified as non-tariff barriers (NTBs). This paper analyses these NTBs...

The SPS Agreement and the related WTO dispute settlement mechanism are an important first step in strengthening the global trade architecture, bringing in greater transparency and orderly conditions to world food trade. However, implementation of the new trade rules has turned out to be a more...

The SPS Agreement and the related WTO dispute settlement mechanism are an important first step in strengthening the global trade architecture, bringing in greater transparency and orderly conditions to world food trade. However, implementation of the new trade rules has turned out to be a more...

Since the mid-1990s, there have been three occasions on which Japan has impeded imports of vegetables from China. On each occasion the instruments used by Japan and the response by China have been different. One the first two occasions, China was not a member of the WTO but now that she is, the...

Institutions should reduce uncertainty and the costs of transaction with their regulating activities. This target was pursued at an international level with the foundation of the WTO. With an extensive treaty and a new dispute settlement procedure, the WTO was founded as the institutional...

This article examines the framework of the Agreement for Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and assesses its impacts on domestic autonomy and authority in matters of food and environmental safety. The direct impact of the SPS Agreement appears quite limited, as only a few cases...

At the WTO, the precautionary principle/approach is considered as a protectionary mechanism, i.e. and alleged justification for potentially WTO-illegal trade restrictions. This article presents a survey of some pronouncements of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body including two case studies at...

The World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary andPhytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) isa product of international efforts to blendtrade liberalization with standards of publichealth protection. One of the aims of theAgreement is to facilitate the pre-emption...